The 12 Kits of Occasions: January

SPECIAL THANKS TO KARA FOR THE FABULOUS PHOTO!

Wow, time flies! We are starting our third year with the 12 Kits posts. We've changed names and themes a couple of times and had a few changes of people in the group but it's still as much fun as the first time I posted. And I never get over being excited when the mailman brings a kit or while waiting to see what everyone else had made. 

This has been my month to be the hostess! The theme was Valentines or Anything Loved and it was such fun putting the kits together. We also have a special Guest Designer! All the details are on the 12 Kits of Occasions blog. Just click here to find out who our Guest Designer is and find links to everyone's blog.  

All my cards were made with supplies found in the kits with the exception of the Lil' Inkers clouds on my second card. The complete supply list is on the 12 Kits blog here. You might notice the Mama Elephant angels were a special favorite of mine! Hope you enjoy the hop!!

ABOVE IS A MINI DESIGN USING PTI'S LUNCHBOX NOTE DIE.
IT'S PERFECT FOR A VALENTINE NOTE AND CAN HOLD A SMALL CANDY TREAT.

Thank you so much for visiting. I love being able to share my 12 Kits creations. Be sure to come back next month when our hostess will be Renee, A Patchwork Life!

Have a Happy Valentine's Day,

Sharron

At Last: A Card---Actually Two!

After a couple of weeks of being totally unable to create ANYTHING, I was getting really frustrated!! I also needed a card for our neighbor's birthday. So I thought perhaps CASEing would help. There was this fantastic card  that Cathy, The Empty Nest Crafter, had recently made for a Fusion Challenge. She just recently was selected for their Design Team. YAY!! I know she will be fantastic on the their team and I was anxious to try out a challenge. I loved her layout so kept with the basic design. For the sun I used an PTI impression plate then used the same Lil' Inker die but chose to create a flower and added a butterfly element for the center. Thank you so much, Cathy, for giving me a boost. My neighbor loved her card!

So after getting inspired by Cathy, I was ready to make a second card. I was drawn to the flowers in the Fusion inspiration picture--the white with large black centers--and the woodgrain background. For the flowers I used a dogwood die and Cuttlebug's Branches embossing folder added a little different look. I only had an outline flower die so I cut it out of Smoky Shadow, glued it to white cardstock and then fussy cut. The yellow rolled rose is felt.

I am adding this to the WPlus9 challenge #25 also. The colors work perfectly for both challenges!

My Version of Cathy's Card

Thanks so much for letting me share,

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Fresh Cut Florals, Country Charm (WPlus9)

Cardstock: White (Neenah); Sahara Sand (Stampin' Up): Smoky Shadow, Soft Stone (PTI)

Inks: Onyx Black (Versafine); Slate (Amuse)

Dies: Branch with Leaves (Sizzix); Dogwood Blossom Outline (Memory Box); Sentiment Strips (MFT); Under the Mistletoe (WPlus9)

Additional: Felt (PTI); Embossing Folder-Branches (Cuttlebug); Black Pearl (Queen and Co.); Gold Dewdrops; Gold Paper (12 Kits)

Want to Win a Kit?

Renee is the 12 Kits hostess for February and she has a fabulous offer. I'll let her give you all the details. Be sure to leave your comments on the 12 Kits blog, HERE

Hello, Hello!
Renee here and since I am hostessing for February and am busy getting kits packaged and ready to hit the Post Office the last week of the month...
and though we honestly did not collaborate on the idea Sharron and I both thought of offering a kit for giveaway...
she's just way quicker than I am and also thought of having the winner guest with us too...
so I'm borrowing that idea and offering up another chance to be a guestie here with all of us in February!
The little graphic above should give you a clue as to the theme...
Snowblind...
and if you would like to win your own kit and be our honored guest here on 12 Kits...
just leave a comment below telling us your favorite winter activity (if I could get away with it mine would be hibernating till spring because I don't like the cold so I guess instead my favorite activity would actually be complaining about the cold! *giggle*) before Saturday, January 25th at 11:59 CT and I'll announce the winner here on the 12 Kits blog Sunday January 26th!
Good luck and can't wait to see who's going to be joining us next month!

The 12 Kits of Occasions: December with Jessica

PHOTO BY KARA

Wow, another whole year has flown by and the 12 Kits of Occasions group is winding up this year's schedule. We are featuring Christmas this month which means we are already starting on our Christmas cards for Christmas 2014. It feels wonderful to know we no longer have the end of the year rush to get our cards completed.

Our fabulous hostess this month is Jessica, The Paper Parade. She has been super busy since October with the cutest little guy you have ever seen. Yet she managed to put together this amazing kit. It was chock full of whimsical images, papers and oodles of embellishments, and even included some stamps! I could have easily made a dozen cards! Thank you so much, Jessica. You even included several images from stamp sets that I had wanted to buy so it was fun to be able to try them out! And thanks to Kara who makes our wonderful collages that show the kit supplies for the month.

I started with a mini card using this gorgeous poinsettia and stamped with a stamp included in the kit.

Love Mama Elephant so these next two cards are favorites of mine.

I like to limit my comments because there is always so much to see and many blogs to visit but I have one very special announcement about next month. I am the hostess for January and decided to do a competition over on the 12 Kits blog for a Guest Designer. It was wonderful to see all the interest! Yesterday afternoon I drew a winner.  A big congrats to Michelle from Pretty Periwinkles! It will be such fun to send her a kit and hope she enjoys her happy mail as much as all of us do!

Be sure to visit the 12 Kits blog from here to find the list of participants in our hop and a list of supplies that were in Jessica's kit.  

Have a great day!

Sharron

Snowflakes in Pink & Gold!

I actually have a card to post!! I wanted to try out this gorgeous dove die that a very sweet friend sent me. And it also gave me a chance to try Kara's (KandRdesigns) two-tone snowflake technique. I used gold embossing powder and pink glitter. Just wish I could get better pictures of the gold. It has so much more sparkle in real life!

The base is WPlus9 Oatmeal cardstock (love the little flecks in the paper) and I also added some clear rhinestones for extra sparkle.

This is being entered in the following 'snow' challenges.

SWEET SNOWFLAKES

LET IT SNOW

LET IT SNOW

Thanks so much for dropping by,

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Folk Art Flurries (WPlus9)

Cardstock: Oatmeal (WPlus9)

Dies: Bird (Serendipity Stamps); Peace (Memory Box)

Additional: Pink Glitter Paper (LSS); Fine Pink Glitter (Stampendous); Gold Embossing Powder (Stampendous); Rhinestones (Queen and Co.)

25 Days of Christmas with Tracey McNeely

I was so excited when Tracey, In My Creative Opinion, asked if I would make a tag to be featured on one her 25 Days of Christmas Tags posts. Have you been following her blog with all the fabulous tags?I met Tracey through The 12 Kits of Occasions group. She is such a sweet blogging friend and I am constantly in awe of her amazing CAS style. This special tag feature will be running on her blog for 25 days. She even has a link to tags made in past years so there is soooo much inspiration! If you haven't already, be sure you take time to visit her blog!!

I never have enough tags so I took the opportunity to mass produce several while I was cutting and stamping. Love this stamp from Waltzingmouse that coordinates with Spellbinders Labels Five dies. To make things go faster, I cut out a bunch of circles that I then decorated with various stamps and dies! "To" and "From" is stamped on the back of each tag. My favorite is this little reindeer from PTI's Tiny Treats: Christmas. And all the wonderful sentiments are from Mama Elephant's Winter Wonderland.

Thanks so much for dropping by. And thanks again to Tracey for asking me to play along. 

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Let It Snow (Avery Elle); Winter Wonderland (Mama Elephant); Tiny Treat: Christmas (PTI); Little Box Labels (WMS)

Cardstock: White (WPlus9)

Dies: Spellbinders Labels Five; Christmas Bits (Lil' Inker Designs); Breezy Wreath (Poppy Stamps)

Inks: Onyx Black (Versafine); Nautical Blue, Cottage Ivy, Love Letter, Rhubarb Stalk (Memento)

Additional: Ribbon (May Arts); Twine (Martha Stewart); Glitter Papers (LSS); Glitter (Stampin' Up); Copics; Pearl (Recollections)

The 12 Kits of Occasions: November "A Gingham Christmas"

PHOTO BY KARA

For those in the States, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and to my Jewish friends--Thanksgiving and Hanukkah! Can't believe that the year is almost over. The 12 Kits of Occasions group will be spending these last two months celebrating Christmas and Winter. This month's hostess is Kelly, Gingham Girl, who treated us with the most amazing kit. This photo above gives you an idea of all the fabulous goodies she included. The photo was taken by Kara, KandRdesigns, who continues to wow us with these awesome collages. Kelly's kit included so many fantastic supplies. I think I could have made a dozen projects. Today's post is only cards but I'm anxious to work on tags soon. Bet I'll see some wonderful samples on today's hop!

I loved the papers! And for my first card, I used two of the included die cuts--a string of tiny lights. I decorated the tree with the red ones and then went back and added a red rhinestone on top of each light. Funny thing happened with the sentiment though. I had it laid out with 'Merry and Bright'. The 'and Bright' piece mysteriously disappeared before I could get it glued. I'm pretty sure the dog ate it!!!

I did add a couple of die cuts that weren't in the kit. Both are from Memory Box. In each case it was after I got the card done and thought it needed something else. For this one I added the strip of music.

And for this one, I added a penguin!!

There is so much to see that I'm sure you'll want to be on your way to check out what each of the 12 Kits members made. We also have a special guest designer this month and a little drawing where you might win some of this gorgeous paper. Just think of all the wonderful Christmas projects you could start on! 

Click HERE to connect to the 12 Kits blog. There will be links to all the other blogs plus a list of kit supplies. And be sure to visit again in December when our hostess will be Jessica at The Paper Parade.

I'm so happy that you stopped by. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sharron